Matt interviews Dr. Joe Rigney regarding his book, “Live like a Narnian”.
S6E40: “Live like a Narnian” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
“We will be who we are becoming. Our direction determines our destination. A recurring theme in all of the Narnian books is the relationship between our character and our actions. Between the type of person that we are and the way that we respond to our circumstances.”
Dr. Joe Rigney, Live Like A Narnian (Chapter 3)
Biographical Information
Dr. Rigney is a pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul and serves as a teacher at Desiring God.
Guest Biographical Information
He is the author of five books including: Lewis on the Christian Life: Becoming Truly Human in the Presence of God and a book endorsed by two former guests of the show, Douglas Wilson and Devin Brown, which is Live Like a Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis’s Chronicles.
Chit-Chat
- Dr. Rigney is taking on a new role at New St. Andrews College.
- Lewis on the Christian Life: Becoming Truly Human in the Presence of God (Theologians on the Christian Life) by Dr. Joe Rigney
Toast
- Matt was drinking a coffee
- His guest wad drinking a diet coke
Discussion
01. “Encountering Lewis”
Q. Let’s start with your first encounter with Lewis and what role he has played in your personal journey.
–
02. “Dedication”
Q. To whom did you dedicate this book?
“For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.”
C.S. Lewis, The Horse and his Boy (Chapter 15)
03. “Book Genesis”
Q. Would you tell us a little bit about where this book came from, how it was developed, and what you hope readers get out of it?
- More than a Battle by Dr. Joe Rigney
04. “Mimesis”
Q. In the introduction you speak a lot about “mimesis”. Why is this important in education?
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
1 Corinthians 15:33
05. “Become who we are becoming”
Q. In Chapter 3, what does it mean that “we become who we are becoming”?
–
06. “Justice and mercy”
Q. What do you unpack in Chapter 8 in relation to justice and mercy?
Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful.
C.S. Lewis, The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
C.S. Lewis, The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment
06. “Dark night of the soul”
Q. What were you saying about the “dark night of the soul” in Chapter 15?
And he called out “Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us Now.”
But the darkness and the cold and the quietness went on just the same.
“Let me be killed,” cried the King. “I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.”
And still there was no change in the night or the wood, but there began to be a kind of change inside Tirian. Without knowing why, he began to feel a faint hope. And he felt somehow stronger.
The Last Battle (Chapter 4)
Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
The Screwtape Letters (Chapter 8)
07. “Key Narnian themes”
Q. Now to the section where we highlight a singular example from each of the books we have covered in Pints With Jack. Feel free to choose any example that you love from each of these books. Let’s start there and work backwards from “The Magician’s Nephew“.
“For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.”
C.S. Lewis, The Horse and his Boy (Chapter 15)
- Henry V by William Shakespeare
